Spain's Alberto Contador sealed a remarkable victory in the Tour of Spain just over a month after returning from a two-year doping ban and declared it perhaps the "most beautiful of his career".

The 29-year-old Spaniard - adding a second Vuelta to the one he won in 2008 - has always protested his innocence over the minute trace of clenbuterol that was detected in a doping test during the 2010 Tour de France, saying it came from a contaminated steak he ate.

However, having taken his punishment after a long drawn out legal process, the rider from Pinto preferred not to reflect on what went before but rather what the future holds, and what this means to him.

"This victory is maybe the most beautiful of all my wins," he said after all but sealing victory on Saturday.

"It is because of what happened at Fuente De (his decisive stage win in the mountains last Wednesday when he displaced long-time overall leader Joaquim Rodriguez).

"I really lived through something extraordinary there, that I had never felt before."

Contador, who said he was relieved and moved to have been cheered throughout the race despite his drugs ban, displays neither bitterness nor a sense of having got his own back on those who had imposed the ban on him.

"I am really happy, almost liberated with regard to the pressure that I put on myself," said the two-time Tour de France champion, who was stripped of one other Tour de France win (2010) and the 2011 Tour of Italy triumph because of his doping infraction.

Contador, who is targeting the world championship double in the Netherlands at the end of the month of the time-trial and the road race, has had time too to re-adjust his future goals including taking a more realistic view of a Grand Tour slam.

"A little while ago I entertained the idea of winning the Giro-Tour-Vuelta," he said.

"But given the pressure that that brings with it, I prefer now to focus on targets that are more reasonable."

Agence France-Presse in Madrid